


Threshold

by LaReineDuLune



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Immortal Husbands, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Romance, Supernatural Elements, Team as Family, Warrior Husbands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:55:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26829967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaReineDuLune/pseuds/LaReineDuLune
Summary: In searching for a way to restore Andy's immortality, Joe and Nicky set their family upon a path to the most haunted place on Earth, and inadvertently to the very threshold between our world and what lies beyond the chthonic veil.It's October! Time for a spooky story!
Relationships: Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko, Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 37
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

Threshold  
©2020 La Reine du Lune

Chapter 1

“You look very sexy in the Fedora, _amore mio_ ,” Joe mused as he met Nicky when he emerged from the _The Bibliotheca Publica_ in Valletta, Malta. Since the affair with Merrick and the subsequent one with Quyhn’s return, the pair had not had a moment’s rest nor the opportunity to return to their beloved sanctuary of the island nation until over two years later. Their current rest was hard fought for and won. Now that Andy and Quyhn were navigating a new relationship with each other, and Nile and Booker had gone backpacking together around Europe, Nicky and Joe had swept each other away to Mediterranean life, peace and solitude.

It was somewhere into their seventh week on the island, from looking out of their bedroom window at the sea, that the idea had come to Nicky to simply _look_. What he was looking for he was not certain as he was chasing a memory, but the inspiration had struck him and he knew he’d not be able to rest his mind unless he tried. When he’d made the suggestion to Joe, it had become a project for them. Even if their searches lead to nothing, it had already occupied their time and given them a much needed spark of hope. Working together, being together, sharing thoughts and ideas - it was all and more.

Nicky approached his husband and snaked his hand behind Joe’s neck to drawn him in for a kiss far too passionate and hungry for a mid-week afternoon in a public square.

“I don’t look like an old man?” Nicky asked. “A girl in there said I was too handsome to dress like my grandfather.”

“You do, but it’s very sexy nonetheless. Perhaps if you lost the suit jacket, put on an old pair of jeans and wore sandals or Doc Martens instead of slacks and dress shoes you could make it fashionable. Maybe a scarf? All that being said, you look like Indiana Jones, and that affirms to me that you are very, _very_ sexy in your hat.”

“Is that fashionable or is that pretentious?” Nicky winked at him to make sure he understood he was only teasing. “I will take your suggestions under consideration.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“The manuscripts were there, yes, but I was not allowed to touch them and a little old man hovered over me, scared I would breathe too close to the books. He wouldn’t even let me turn the pages myself. They were lenient however and allowed me to take pictures when I informed them their official interpretations were inaccurate. My grasp of old Arabic is considerably better than the translator they’d hired.”

“Unsurprising, since you learned it nearly a thousand years ago.”

Nicky stole another kiss from Joe’s lips and smiled sweetly at him. “I had an excellent teacher. He was _very_ thorough in all his instructions, on a great variety of subjects.”

“He sounds amazing, what else did he teach you?”

“Mmm, a long list of very important things. Such as how to please him and myself in our bed, for example. I might need further lessons, perhaps this afternoon?”

“Indeed, I believe he would enjoy _further lessons_ this afternoon also, though I think you were a natural and required little guidance.”

“What can I say, I was inspired, and he inspires me to this day. One of the many reasons I married him.”

Joe laughed and kissed him again before threading their fingers together and tugging him along. “Come, we’ll look over the manuscripts together and see where they lead.”

Hours later after Joe had kindly offered to wash up after dinner, he found Nicky with his head in his hand and his eyes drooping closed as he scrawled his new interpretation of the pages he’d photographed from the books. He took the luck that the old manuscripts were still at the library centuries after they’d first been gifted to it as a sign and affirmation of their quest. At first he couldn’t remember where he’d left them several hundred years in the past. Everything having been in Malta after all was a minor miracle.

He was roused by the press of Joe’s lips upon the back of his neck. “How goes it, _habibi_?” Joe spoke it softly. Nicky hummed and cracked his neck as he stretched and sat up straight from his laptop. He turned and opened his arms, inviting Joe to sit in his lap, which he happily accepted, wrapping his arms around Nicky’s shoulders.

“You are the scholar in the family, my love, I’ve taken this as far as I can. Would you oblige me by comparing the text to my translation?”

“I’m sure it’s perfect.”

“No, of course it isn’t. I’ve just done the leg work, it’s you who will perfect it, find the nuance and the heart if, as you do with all things.”

“Give yourself more credit, Nicolò.”

“So long as you accept the simple fact that you are one of the greatest minds in all of history.”

“I ate stale gummy bears for breakfast yesterday while you were still asleep.”

Nicky snickered and slapped his thigh. “Liar. Just read.”

The pair stayed in the one chair for another hour, Nicky content to doze cuddled up with Joe in his arms as Joe scribbled over the pages Nicky had written his first three drafts of the translation over.

“Iraq,” Joe spoke suddenly.

Nicky blinked awake and yawned. “My legs are asleep. Iraq?”

“Come, let’s go to bed and I’ll tell you all about it. We’ll need Booker’s help with visas.”

“What’s in Iraq?”

“More like what _was_ in Iraq. The grand civilization known as Sumer.”

“I know of the Sumerians. I have always wondered if Gilgamesh and Enkidu were indeed lovers as some suggest. Lovers like us, and that is why Gilgamesh spurned the advances of Ishtar.”

“Inanna, back then, and I knew her from the folk tales of my childhood. Goddess of the Stars. Of Death and of Birth. Of War.”

“Where are we going in Iraq?”

“Between the two rivers, to the ruins of an ancient city forgotten by history and taken by the desert.”

“And we’re going to find it?”

“It won’t be difficult, I’ve walked its streets and seen the temple to its goddess.”

“When was this?”

“When I was still mortal.”

“And you remember? It’s been nearly one thousand years.”

“True, but it is indelibly locked in my mind never to fade, just like the patterns of the moles on the skin of your back. I know them better than I know the stars in the sky. Nicky, my heart, I am the only person in the world who has been to this place and known it for what it was save for the mage who wrote the tome you saw today, we will find what we are looking for. Your idea has set us upon a quest that no one else in the world could ever complete.”

“It is destiny then, would you not say?”

“It is destiny. How else would an idea such as this form in your head, based on something you remembered reading about centuries ago and have it come back to you now? For us to seek out the book, to find it miraculously Valletta, and in turn it spoke of a secret place lost to history known only to me?”

Nicky grinned. “You cannot argue with destiny, can you?”

“No my love, you cannot. What do you say? Shall we ask Booker to forge our credentials and become archaeologists? You already have the Fedora! Nicky Jones! I’ll be your faithful companion Joe Smith!”

A month later, Nicky sat in shadows in a temple in the middle of the desert four miles from the Euphrates at the mouth of a hole in the ground under the ruins of an ancient temple devoted to Inanna. The passage way was too narrow for Nicky to fit his broad shoulders and Joe, while taller by and inch was more slender, and still barely fit. Joe had been gone for over two hours, navigating through endless anti-chambers following all the clues they’d deciphered from the original Arabic texts. It was a small comfort that he’d not heard any cave ins, but Joe’s radio had lost its signal. He was down so deep, Nicky was beginning to panic. Booker had offered to come with them, as had Nile, but their lack of Arabic and ability to speak of the ancient world Joe and Nicky knew so well wouldn’t have stood up under the scrutiny of Iraqi government officials and the faculty at the University of Baghdad.

They’d been convincing enough to be granted permits to explore certain areas of the country in search of what was surely folly. They’d come back empty handed and chalk it all up to following a notion that simply didn’t pan out and then leave the country. Of course Booker’s exceptional technological wizardry would allow them to upload the pictures they’d take to a private server before deleting said pictures from their devices, leaving no trace of any of their discoveries.

However, just as Nicky was about to call in every favour to every person he’d ever know to get them help find his husband, the man himself finally appeared, covered in dust but grinning ear to ear.

“How’s your Cuneiform, my love?” Joe asked as he emerged into Nicky desperate arms pulling him in for a fierce hug.

“Average,” Nicky buried his nose in Joe’s beard and held him tight. “I was so scared.”

“I’m sorry, it was a long way down and I got a bit turned around. I found what we were looking for, but it’s in Cuneiform, and considering how many people can read Cuneiform, average means not at all I take it?”

“Essentially, yes,” Nicky laughed. “There’s only one person in the world we trust with this information who reads Cuneiform.”

“You ask her, she likes you best.”

“Andromache likes me best because I bring her Baklava. We’re in Iraq, we’ll find a bakery before we leave.”  
  
A week later they found themselves walking through the streets of Prague with their bags and carefully hidden swords. They’d let go the rental car they’d picked up in Greece and made their way to the apartment where Nile and Booker were staying, an AirBnB with three bedrooms and two baths. They’d apparently tired of hostels and camping.

When Booker answered the door, he had a towel around his neck and was only half dressed, his jeans not even done up. Joe narrowed his eyes and watched as the mark on his neck slowly faded before his eyes.

“Is that… was that a hickey?” Joe asked, lips spreading across his teeth into a smile. Booker looked startled and his hand involuntarily going to the tender spot where the blot was now all but gone. Catching himself his shoulders first dropped in defeat, then tensed themselves again.

“If either of you give her a hard time about this, I will end you,” Booker threatened in a low growl. “You weren’t supposed to be here for another hour.”

“Traffic was good,” Nicky spoke, trying and failing to hide his delight at the turn of events. “And we wouldn’t give our beloved Nile a _hard_ time, thought I suspect you have.”

Book bit the inside of his cheek to keep from saying anything. Joe clapped him on the shoulder and walked into the spacious apartment with its white walls, tall ceiling and skylights. The place was bright and calming. It was not their usual fare, but it was lovely. Booker stood aside to let Nicky over the threshold when Nile emerged from where the bathroom was situated in nothing but a white robe, her bare feet padding across the polished concrete floor.

“Hey baby, do we have the stuff for making mimosas…” her words died on her tongue as she saw she and Booker were no longer alone. “So I guess that cat’s out of the bag then, huh?”

Joe laughed and went straight to her for an all encompassing hug before passing her off to Nicky for them same.

“Nile!” Nicky exclaimed. “Where did your hair go!” He stared wide eyed and admired her newly shorn hair, undercut and long on top, swept back after her shower. “It looks beautiful!”

She blushed at the compliment. “Thank you, Nicky, I thought so too. I’m going for a little Grace Jones in the 80s thing, but with a bit more flare and room to style. Yours is getting long. Want me to cut it for you?”

“No!” Joe supplied after returning from placing their bags in the room he’d claimed for them. He passed them and went in search of Booker in the kitchen, presumably putting together a mimosa for Nile.

“Joe likes it longer,” Nicky said with a shrug. “So, you and Booker?”

“Me and Booker. We had a moment in Marseilles and I didn’t want it to end and neither did he, so it didn’t. Don’t give him a hard time, ok? It’s taken a lot of work for him to get here.”

“I wouldn’t, and neither will Joe. We are happy for you. Love can sustain you through anything life puts in your path and life sees fit to put quite a lot in ours. Having someone to hold in the dark when you are broken and cold? It is everything. Trust me, I know.”

“Yeah, we know. We talked a lot about you and Joe. Booker’s seeing you with new eyes, I think. He might want to talk with you. He knows you and Joe have forgiven him, and what it cost you to be able to do that, but he feels his guilt and remorse deeper than he did back in Whitbey. It’s taken me a lot of mental wrangling to accept that he and I have feelings for each other and that they’re not just out of default because we’re the only option available to each other unless we want to be in a relationship with someone who’s going to grow old and die. I think he’s more broken now than he ever was before. But I’m his girlfriend, not his therapist.”

“I understand. We have forgiven, but we’ve not forgotten and there are times when we still feel the anger, the hurt and the betrayal, but we have allowed ourselves to be magnanimous and despite it all, we love him as our brother. We did throughout.”

“He loves you too. He’s determined to continue to prove it to you both. He knows it’s going to take years, decades even. He’s sincere. I believe in him.”

“He is very lucky to have you, little sister.”

“Damn right he is.”

“Lots of champagne left over if you and Nicky want?” Booker spoke as he pulled the bottle from the refrigerator along with a pitcher of orange juice. “I’m not drinking right now, so there’s plenty. Or there’s coffee.”

“Coffee would be preferable, it’s cold outside,” Joe replied while adding beans to the machine for their coffee and watched as Booker prepared the drink for Nile. “So, you and Nile?”

“Have spent a lot of time talking, a _lot_ of talking. Too much talking, and then one day she put her hand on my chest, told me to shut up, and she kissed me.”

“And?”

“And that was only two weeks ago, so I’m letting her lead, and I’m fumbling my way through everything, which is probably no great surprise to you.”

“You’re in love with her.” It was easy for Joe to come to that conclusion. He’d seen just about every iteration of Booker but he’d never seen him in love, and the man before him was scared out of his wits and desperate for the acceptance and approval of the woman they’d come to regard as their sister.

“I worship her and I wish it were otherwise because she doesn’t deserve to be saddled with me or my baggage, even if I’m working on being a better man. I’m not there Joe, but she is magnetic, I can’t help but follow where she leads. I’m going to screw this up, I know it. Then where will I be? Back to square one, like you found me two hundred years ago, alone… just alone.” Booker gave his head a shake and got down mugs for their coffees and handed them to his friend. Joe scrutinized him and Booker couldn’t meet his eyes.

“Or, you don’t screw up, everything works out fine, and you finally catch a break? You keep yourself grounded, you don’t keep secrets to yourself, and we help you if you think you’re doing to falter?”

Booker shrugged. “You ever get the feeling there’s something in the shadows watching you? Like you know it’s your imagination, but you still feel eyes on you? I have this terrible feeling in my gut, Joe. Nile is all light and hope, and meanwhile I feel like something’s got its hooks in me, trying to drag me down. I had a dream last night, that you and Nicky were getting dragged away by that thing in the dark and I was running to try and save you, but I was too late, wasn’t strong enough.”

“It’s probably just your subconscious trying to work through what happened in London. It’s only been a couple years. Nicky and I still have dreams.”

“I’m sorry.”

“We know. Try and focus on the positive, but thank you for telling me. If the shadows get too close, just reach out, I won’t turn you away. I want to help.”

“Thank you. I promise to try.” Joe gave his shoulder a squeeze and tended to the coffee once it had brewed. Booker presented Nile with her mimosa and went to finish getting dressed while Joe and Nicky drank their coffees with Nile. Andy and Quyhn were due to arrive before the day’s end, but they had no fixed time. They’d go to the market and get ingredients to make dinner, and then eventually Joe and Nicky would have to broach the subject that had been the impetus for them calling the family back together so quickly into their separation. In truth they could have waited until their year long hiatus had ended, but there was an urgency that Joe and Nicky felt down to their bones. They’d been driven by it since landing in Greece after leaving their excursion in Iraq. It was as if something was trying to coalesce and they were responsible for reaching out and bringing the pieces together, only they didn’t know what it was they were working towards. Nonetheless, they knew they had to push forwards. Joe wondered absently if he too felt that presence in the shadows Booker spoke of. Now that he’d mentioned it, he couldn’t get it out of his mind. He kept close to Nicky, closer than usual, for the rest of the day.

It wasn’t until after dinner, when the three couples were seated together in the living room, mutually ploughing through a communal plate of Trdelnik, which was Andy’s only competition for her love of Baklava – what they’d brought from Iraq having been devoured as soon as she’d walked through the door. There was also a few Vetrnik and Venecek as Nile had developed an insatiable appetite for them both and Booker would always oblige the woman who’d set her sights on him. They were all fairly relaxed, but Quyhn had bee keenly observing each of them as her perspicacity was always the keenest among the group. From her position at Andy’s side she noted two things quite easily.

“Nile has claimed Booker as hers, Andromache,” she spoke aloud, “But he is scared of being unworthy of her affections.”

“Great, thank you Quyhn,” Booker mumbled into his cup of after dinner coffee.

“You are welcome, young one. I have spared you many weeks of inner turmoil and angst. You should thank me, now when you take each other to bed you can confess to her all your fears and she may reassure you, rather than letting your thoughts and recriminations consume you.”

“Quyhn,” Nicky smiled, “It does my heart well to see you reclaiming some of your old self. You were always the most observant of us. I learned much from you.”

“Thank you, brother, but you won’t be spared from my talent, you brought us here for a reason. Speak it.”

Nicky sighed and rose from his place at Joe’s side, walking to their bed room to retrieve the printouts they’d had made from the pictures Joe and taken. He came back and with a heavy sigh handed them over to Andy before Joe led him back to his side and cuddled him close, their hand seeking each others and threading their fingers together.

“Cuneiform?” she questioned as she looked over the pages. “Old cuneiform. Very old. Where is this from?”

“A tomb under a temple in Iraq, north of Kissura, surrounded nothing but desert as far as the eye could see,” Joe provided.

“And how did you come by these images? These are on a wall, not tablets?”

“A wall yes, and I took the pictures.” Andy eye them both warily then Booker. If they got into Iraq, Booker would’ve had to have helped them. “I believe you’re the only person in the world who could translate the text.”

“You’re right.” She looked back at the pages, skimming through them before she set them aside, a slow burgeoning anger coming over her features. She locked her stare on Joe and Nicky and all but growled at them “What the hell are you two playing at?”

“Please, Andy,” Nicky implored.

“Go to hell. You’re not playing games with me.”

“I assure you we’re not.”

“My mortality is final, just like it was for Lykon,” Andy seethed, rising to her feet, ready to storm out of the apartment. “You _can’t_ reverse it. It’s been 6000 years. You’re always talking about how when it’s our time to go, it’s destiny. You can’t just make it come or go at will. I’ve accepted that I’m going to die soon, you need to as well. I _am_ ready to die. So is Booker. You have to let me go.” She went to leave, but Nicky rose and caught her arm. He didn’t flinch at the warning that her eyes levelled at him.

“It’s not for _you_ , Andy. It’s for me, for me and Joe!” In that moment it seemed as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. Andy looked at him with wide staring eyes. She looked him up and down.

“Nicky…” Andy’s anger drained out of her and her eyes grew wet. “Are you…?”

He shook his head. “I apologize, if my words just now scared you. No, Joe and I are still immortal, but we will not always be. Immortality has never been a burden or a curse for us. We only love each other more as the years go by, more than ever, and one day when you are indeed long parted from us, we will lose our immortality and if it is not together as we’ve always promised each other - one of us will go first and we cannot bear it. Then, there will be no one left who can do the translations and this magick will be lost. Do you want to imagine a world in which I have lost Joe? Can you fathom what I’ll do to that world without him as my guiding light? The monster my grief will allow me to become in spite of myself? _Please_ , Andromache. Do this for us? I beg you.”

The tension in the air was thick and Andy and Nicky stared each other down, but whatever thoughts she was turning over in her head, ultimately her love for them outweighed her doubts and she gave him a barely perceptible nod and he let go of her arm. She snatched up the pages and disappeared into the room she and Quyhn were sharing. The stared in her direction long after she was gone and the silence hung heavy in her wake until out of the blue, Booker spoke.

“She’s wrong,” he said, looking down at his folded hands in his lap.

“What’s that?” Nile asked, pulling her knees up under her and turning to face him on the couch. He looked up at her and gave her a soft, but weepy smile.

“Andy is wrong, I am not ready to die. Not now. Not anymore. I do love you, _ma reine_ , _mon coeur_. You have restored my faith in living for years unending.” Nile leaned over and kissed his forehead sweetly. “But Quyhn is right, I don’t deserve you.”

Nile shook her head. “Sébastien, you aren’t the same man I met a few years ago, this one right here in front of me very much deserves to be happy.” He nodded but everyone could tell he didn’t really accept her words as truth. Nile kissed him again and patted his chest. “C’mon, let’s clean up and go to bed. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. I mean, hopefully it’s a mimosa in bed…”

He chuckled warmly and smiled.

As Booker and Nile tended to the kitchen, Joe retired to bedroom and Nicky followed Quyhn out on to the balcony to look out over the city and up at the starry night under the crisp air. “Are you cold?” Nicky asked, prepared to offer her the heavy cable knit sweater he’d brought for himself. She shook her head and he proceeded to pull it on himself. It was cozy and warm and smelled strongly of Joe who’d worn it the day before. Nicky revelled in it.

A gathering of dead roses bushes sat in in a large pot in one corner and Quyhn reached out and ran her fingers along the brittle stems, letting the thorns cut her and ribbons of blood run down her fingertips. The little slices healed immediately and she wiped her hand on a paper napkin that had been forgotten on the small metal breakfast table when Nile and Booker must’ve eaten outside. Her immortality was intact.

“I do not feel cold as I once did. Nicolò, you lied to Andromache,” she spoke. “You did not go to Iraq for you and Yusuf.”

“Not entirely, no, but it will serve us too one day.”

“You want to save her.”

“I want her to save herself. But Joe and I, we don’t want to give her false hope. A few centuries ago, while we were in Rome, we snuck into the Vatican, as one does.”

“You and Yusuf were always such naughty boys.”

“Well, if they didn’t tell people they weren’t allowed in the place, they shouldn’t be surprised when people want to see what’s inside.”

“What did you find?”

“Several books in Arabic, written by a mage far older than Joe or I. We stole it and meant to return it, but never quite got around to it. At first we thought it was just folklore, but hidden within was more. Rituals. One story spoke of Gilgamesh and his quest for immortality.”

“Ah yes, after his lover Enkidu died. Andromache told you their story long ago when we all first met, two men devoted and in love which each other that time has saw fit to label as only close friends and brothers. Nonsense. In ancient times we all knew the stories and they _were_ lovers. Perhaps you and Yusuf are their reincarnation.” Nicky smiled, it was a pleasant thought. “And upon Enkidu’s death, Gilgamesh sought immortality, though in the end he failed to achieve it.”

“He did, or so the tale goes. But the story persists. Perhaps he did find the answer.”

“And this mage followed in his foot steps.”

“Perhaps Gilgamesh wrote the secret in a tomb in a temple to Inanna? And while he did not find immortality for himself, he left it for others to find some thousands of years later. Destiny. I have always believed.” Quyhn sighed and Nicky put his arm around her. “I did not mean…”

“I know you didn’t, brother, but I cannot help but wonder why destiny has been so kind to you and not at all to me.”

“I cannot begin to comprehend, I am only grateful you are here with us now. My heart grieves all the years you were lost.”

Quyhn shrugged. “I am reclaiming myself, and if I can, I will reclaim Andromache too. We are close again, but not as we once were. There is still a cage around her heart courtesy of her new mortality. I aim to break it apart just like I did my own prison beneath the sea. I do not have the luxury of centuries to complete this task this time however. She does not have that long. If there is a chance that we can make her immortal again, I will convince her to seize it.”

“Andy it not easily convinced of anything.”

“No she is not, but if anyone can, it will be me.”

Don't be shy to leave a review, it really does fuel the fire to write and it is much appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

Reviews are very much appreciated!

Chapter 2

Nicky was the last to bed after going around and ensuring that the apartment was secure. He made the route twice, but knew that Booker had chosen a well situated place to house the family with no glaring vulnerable spots. Still, the routine calmed him and got him ready for sleep. It had been a long day. All other lights were off save for the bedside lamp Joe had left on for him. Andy and Quyhn’s room was dark. She had spent a good hour alone with the prints from the temple. He yawned and stretched as he entered the bedroom, pausing a moment to look over his already sleeping husband laying naked atop the covers. It was a rare gift when they were travelling that they had somewhere safe enough that they could sleep in the nude, which was what they generally preferred. No one enjoyed sleeping in jeans and boots. Nicky carried on to the bathroom to brush his teeth and go through the nightly routing he so rarely got to take his time with. After he rinsed his mouth he looked up into the bathroom mirror and studied himself. He didn’t feel particularly tired, but his eyes were dark and he saw the weariness of all his years behind them. Still, he wanted a thousand more, just so he could spend them with Joe.

The noise from the bed at first sounded like Joe waking up, ready to welcome him into his arms, but Nicky soon realized that it was something far less pleasant. Nicky turned quickly and rushed to his love’s side. A sheen of sweat had broken out over his skin and his face was contorted in pain. There were tears streaming down his cheeks and he whimpered, hands twisted in the sheets.

“Joe, Joe,” Nicky sat down next to him and touched his hand gently to his husband’s chest, feeling his heart furiously beating beneath his ribs. He kept his voice low so as not to wake the others. “Yusuf, _destati, por favore.”_

Joe sat up with a sharp and sudden gasp as he was torn from his nightmare. Nicky nearly toppled off the bed but Joe’s reflexes caught Nicky’s shirt in his hand and pull him in. “Nicolò?”

“ _Sono qui_ , my love. You were dreaming.” Joe looked at him, blinking away the images that had been tormenting as he drank in the sight of his husband before him. Before Nicky could speak again, Joe crushed his lips to Nicky’s in a devouring, all consuming kiss to which Nicky gave into immediately. Joe’s hands clawed his shirt, nearly tearing it apart at the seams, before Nicky pulled back and set his hands on Joe’s shoulders, gently easing him away. “ _Habibi_ , what did you dream of that has you so desperate? You don’t often dream.”

Joe sighed heavily and let go of Nicky’s shirt to rub a hand down sigh face. “It was of you.”

“Oh?”

“It was awful, Nicolò. I dreamt you were on fire and I could do nothing to save you.”

“Joe, that is awful. I’m sorry.”

Joe shook his head. “It was only a dream, but it’s with me still, the horror of it. I’ve never experienced anything like it. It was far too vivid. I’ll spare you the details.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I do, trust me.”

“I trust you, but that’s irrelevant. Tell me. A burden shared is a burden halved.” Nicky took Joe’s face in his hands and gently rubbed the tears from his cheeks.

“It was… surreal. I knew it couldn’t be real, but it was so far as I was concerned. You stood in a landscape of nothing but stone, broken, sharp rocks all the way to the horizon. At first I thought the sun was rising behind you, but then I realized that _you_ were the source of the light and already consumed by flames, and then you were screaming. I was watching you, trying to reach for you, but it was as if you were in another world entirely and I could not break through the barrier between us, and you kept screaming, screaming for me.”

“Oh, Yusuf, dear one of my heart. That is terrible. I know how real dreams can seem, but I am here, I am fine. What can I do?”

“You’re already doing it, _grazie_. But…”

“But?”

“I want your skin against mine. To feel you living and in my arms.”

“Do you want more? I would happily give it. I’ll always want you.”

Joe shook his head. “It’s been a very long day and I am tired, though I am scared the dream will come back. Let me hold you? Maybe you can chase the awful images from my head. I want your heat, your scent to fill may senses. I _really_ need to hold you.”

Nicky pulled him forward and kissed his lips reverently before rising to remove his clothes. Both nude, the positioned themselves under the covers with Joe at Nicky’s back and his knees tucked up behind his. When Joe wrapped his arm around Nicky’s waist, and pulled him back closer against him, he finally relaxed, exhaling a long, tired breath against the back of his neck. Nicky tugged the covers up over their shoulders and settled his weight back against Joe.

“I’m ok now,” Joe whispered in Nicky’s ear, nuzzling at it with his nose. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Try and sleep. I’m fine. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” Joe tightened his hold to the point where Nicky gasped.

“Sorry.”

“No, hold me tight, Yusuf. Hold me all night.”

With morning came a strange melancholy that neither Nicky nor Joe could shake. Upon first waking, Joe once again tightened the hold that had gone lax in their sleep and breathed in deeply to fill his nostrils with the scent of his husband. Nicky stretched and leaned back into him, smiling to himself at the feel of Joe’s morning arousal against his behind. “Mmm, good morning,” Nicky sighed. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did. You were with me, after all.” Joe kissed the juncture between Nicky’s shoulder and neck, as his hand travelled down his torso. “May I have you this morning?”

“I was hoping, yes, my love. Keep going.”

The pair emerged from their bedroom an hour after they’d wakened. Their morning had helped erased the disturbing nightmare Joe had experienced the night before. After a rather satisfying tryst in bed, they’d continued in the shower until both men felt renewed and refreshed. Holding hands like a pair of lovesick teenagers they made their way to the kitchen together. There they found a rather fatigued looking Booker yawning into a cup of coffee, Nile at his side rubbing his back.

“Bonjour, mes gars,” he spoke, his voice rough. “There’s coffee. I thought maybe we’d go out for breakfast?”

“Didn’t you sleep well?” Joe asked, finding two mugs in the cupboard for he and Nicky.

“Understatement,” said Nile. “He was up all night, even left to sleep on the couch so I could get some sleep.”

“It’s nothing,” Booker insisted. “Not like I didn’t dream about Quyhn just about every night. After a while they just don’t hit you that hard no matter how awful they are. I’m over it, just didn’t get enough sleep.”

“Joe didn’t sleep all that great either,” Nicky provided, accepting his mug as Joe passed it to him. “Same reason.”

“Probably just travel and a tired brain,” Joe echoed, despite the look Nicky was giving, knowing full well that his husband was still disturbed by what he’d experienced. Joe caught his eyes and looked away, knowing he’d been caught out. It was just then that Andy came storming out of her bedroom, Quyhn following slowly after her. She didn’t speak a work or look at any of them before pushing past Nicky to give him a withering stare and unceremoniously dropping the printing pages of the Cuneiform on the kitchen island before she turns on her heels and out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Quyhn lingered between the living room and the kitchen area, looking up the skylights and basking in the open space. “When did my Andromache because so obstinate?” Quyhn sighed as she approached. “Do not answer. It was rhetorical. Forgive her, she does not handle the emotions surrounding _hope_ very well.”

“Hope?” Nicky questioned, just as Joe came to stand bedside him as they leaned on the island, Joe’s arm sliding across Nicky’s waist.

“Hope that she might be able to regain her immortality, should she want it. It terrifies her that she might when she had convinced herself that she didn’t.”

“So you’re saying…” Joe left his words hanging in the air.

“That in the tomb under the temple, carved by the artists of perhaps Gilgamesh himself is a ritual once performed may grant immortality to those who participate. Gilgamesh wished to live forever so that Enkidu, his true love, would never be forgotten. He chose not to proceed on the promise that they would be reunited in the afterlife instead, but left his knowledge for us to find.”

“Does Andy believe it will work?” Booker asked, casting a glance toward the pages, some of which had been turned over to reveal Andy’s translations written in a mix of Greek and English.

“She has no idea if it will work, no one can know until it is performed. It will need study, I will leave that to you for now. Give her space and give her time. She will be back eventually. I will tend to her.” Quyhn dismissed any further discussion on the topic with a flip of her hand. “I will go for a walk of my own and contemplate.”

With that she was gone and the four young immortals were left to their own devices. “Booker, your Greek is best out of us all,” Nicky spoke as he arranged the pages in order.

He yawned and looked over Andy’s scribblings. “Some of the words are ancient, no proper word in English. I’ll have to improvise, describe a concept rather than something concrete. This could take a while.”

“I’ll make us breakfast?”

“Big one, I’ll need the works – there’s ingredients for pancakes and omelettes, I’ll take both. And coffee. Lots of coffee.”

While Nicky cooked and Nile set the table for them, Joe tugged Booker aside. “Can I have a minute?” he asked, motioning for Booker to follow him back to the living room and out of earshot of the other two.

“Joe?” Booker probed when Joe didn’t speak once they were alone. Instead he chewed on his thumbnail and held his arms around himself.

“Your nightmare last night, tell me about it.”

Booker rolled his shoulders and worried the inside of his cheek with his teeth. “I rather not. I played it off with Nile, but it was something else. I didn’t want to frighten her.”

“Last night I dreamt of a rocky wasteland and in the middle of it stood Nicky and he was on fire. His whole body. The fire was eating him alive. There was nothing I could do.” Booker stared at him with tears brimming in his eyes. He was scared. “You dreamed the same, only it was Nile?”

Booked nodded. “Yeah… yeah, god it was awful. We’ve shared dreams before, but not like this. What do you think it means?”

“Nicky would say it had something to do with fate or our destinies. Is it whatever’s coming? Are we going to this place? Either way, I don’t think it’s a good thing. It feels like a fate we cannot stop ourselves from meeting.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

It was after dark when Quyhn and Andy returned to apartment. Booker was stretched out and sound asleep on the couch, his head in Nile’s lap as gently stroked his beard while watching a mindless movie on the television. Joe watch the film as well, sat with his arm around Nicky, who was pouring over the notes and translations Booker had worked on throughout the day. Booker was nudged awake when the two women returned and sat up, watching as they took their seats in the two arm chairs. Both women looked overwrought and exhausted. Andy felt emotions so deeply, they rarely made it to the surface. Whatever she was feeling in this instant was a mystery.

“Andromache was born in a time when the veil between this world and the world of the dead was so thin as to not exist at all,” Quyhn began. “Ghosts, demons, lost souls - they were all part of the natural world, but as humans evolved, their connection to the natural world was severed. By the time we encountered Yusuf and Nicolò, these entities had for the most part retreated to sacred, hallowed spaces where they could not be touched. Not entirely of course, as there are many places all over the world that continue to experience their presence, but in Andromache’s time, you walked with the souls of your ancestors at your side and could converse with them.”

“Are we talking Force ghosts like in Star Wars?” Nile interjected, still reeling from the idea that the supernatural was real. Quyhn gave her a confused look.

“Yes,” Andy provided. “This ritual, even _if_ there is a chance it will work, can only be performed in a few places on Earth. Most of the world is too full of interference – with electronic signals and the sheer number of people and their energy. We would have to go to one of these places, most of them aren’t feasible.”

“What sort of places?” Joe asked.

“Places where the ley lines intersect.” It was Nile’s turn to look confused, Booker’s too. “Ley lines, they’re like pathways of energy that intersect all over the world – call it esoteric or whatever, but in the ancient world we relied on them for…” Andy paused and sighed. “We relied on them, to perform magick.”

“Hold up, magick’s real too?” Nile asked.

“It is, but it’s nothing like it was. Get a Coven of Wiccas together and maybe you can bend things to your will to a certain degree. But ancient magick? That could fuck up an entire civilization. _This_ is real magick. The Sumerians knew what they were doing and it’s scary as fuck.”

“Gozer the Gozerian, shit, huh?”

Nicky huffed a laugh. He and Joe had seen Ghostbusters in the 1980s.

Andy didn’t laugh. She’d seen that movie too. “Yes, exactly like that.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, it’s the big time, kid.”

“There are places such as those you speak of that exist today?” Nicky inquired.

Andy nodded. “A few, just a handful. Boleskine House in Scotland – that’s out of the question, Crowley fucked that place up in the 19th century. It’s too chaotic, and it attracts too many tourists. It’s even worse now that the house burned down and the demons are running amok in the forests. The pyramids at Giza and Chichen Itza – also out. Aokigahara Forest in Japan is a possibility, but there again, tourists and frankly, people looking to off themselves. There’s the Bermuda Triangle, but we’re not doing this on a boat. The only place we’d have a chance is the Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania. It’s still crawling with tourists, but not usually at this time of year as we approach the winter. And we’d have to go deep, right to the heart of it. To a place. It’s been there for centuries.”

“What place, boss?” Booker asked, already feeling on edge. He didn’t do well with the idea of haunted places and judging by the look on Nile’s face neither did she. He reached out and took her hand in his and she squeezed it gratefully.

“Understand that the forest is ancient, truly ancient, one of the oldest on the planet. In it there is a stone building, not exactly a castle, too small for that. It was built before I’d ever met Lykon or Quyhn, back when I was still the only immortal in the world, back when I was seen as a God. It’s shelter, but it’s more than that. It’s at the intersection of those ley lines I was speaking about. The man who built it was an authentic whacko _and_ a certified genius. He chose every single stone himself, most of them brought over across the Black Sea from Azerbaijan. It took him a decade and a few hundred slaves. The stones from there had a certain magnetic resonance. He built it for one purpose and one purpose only – to harness energy. Hoia Baciu Forest is possibly the most dangerous place on Earth. The locals know it. Anyone with half a brain knows it. Tourists only go to a certain point because once you encounter just one of what lives there, you run for the hills. We’d be going into the belly of the beast, to heart of all the world’s chaotic and malevolent energy – a place of literal evil.”

“And how do you know about all this?”

“Who do you think he built the thing for?” Andy looked at each of their faces and the stunned shock fixed on each of them. “Like I said, real magick can change entire civilizations. I had an enemy, one too great for my armies to overcome. I obliterated them in one night from hundreds of miles away. This was six thousand years ago. Times were different, the world was different. I was different.”

“Andy…” Nile breathed.

“It is a lot to understand,” Quyhn spoke, laying her hand over Andy’s where it rested on the arm of her chair. “You cannot judge this woman by the standards of today regarding what she did in a time when civilization was barely formed. I have told Andromache that I have not endured 500 years at the bottom of the ocean without her to endure another 500 after she has died. She may have agreed for my sake, and all of yours, but in her heart she is doing this for herself. She does not want to die. She loves us all better than she loves herself. We should be grateful and humble because no matter what occurs, this will cost her a great deal.”

Joe and Nicky looked to each other, knowing they were the cause of everything that was about to happen to their family. There was no turning back, not now that Quyhn had convinced Andy and she’d acquiesced. Not now that their dearest friend had just a glimmer of hope to keep their family together. In that moment they knew they were the impetus for whatever doom may be brought upon them. There had been no other choice. Andy would’ve died within a few decades otherwise. When their time came, they each wondered, would they do without the other? Nonetheless, both men were overcome with a terrible and complete dread. Just what path had they set their family upon?

“It’s a month until Samhain,” Andy spoke. “That’ll be the day to do it. It’s the most powerful day of the year’s lunar cycles. It’s a Blue Moon that day too. The veil between the worlds will be all but gone for a short time. Start making preparations. We’ll need supplies. There’ll be no electricity or running water. Book, did you go over the translations?”

“Yeah, Andy,” Booker affirmed. “I cleaned up some of the Greek – took the older words and gave them a form we could all understand in English, but even if I got the words right, I still don’t understand the concepts or the steps.”

“I’ll look things over. But first, I’m going to call Copley and let him know we’re going dark for a while.”

Hours later the apartment was quiet. Discussions and plan making had gone long into the night until finally they broke for each couple to escape to their respective bedrooms. Joe and Nicky’s was beyond the kitchen and living room close to the second bathroom. While smaller than the other two, the room was certain distance away from the others. Therefore, they’d felt a bit more at ease with how they’d wanted to spend the remainder of the evening. Nicky sat back on his knees as he eased himself from within Joe’s body, his hands sliding down the length of him from his chest to his thighs. He flicked a sweat drenched tendril of hair from in front of his eyes and took the tissues Joe offered him to tend to the pools of semen that decorated Joe’s body, both on his stomach and between his legs.

“Good?” Nicky asked from his vantage point as Joe’s breathing slowly calmed.

“Always,” came his reply, a soporific, contented smile on his face. “Very good, I’m too tired to move.”

Nicky grinned, always pleased when he could make his husband happy. He climbed over him and lay atop him, chin resting on Joe’s shoulder as the other man wrapped him up in his arms and legs, keeping him caged close. “Talk to me,” Nicky encouraged, laying his hand over Joe’s heart and welcoming Joe’s around his wrist, his thumb settling over Nicky’s pulse point.

“About anything specific?”

“Romania, and what’s waiting for us there.”

Joe sighed. “Nicolò, I’m terrified. We should have left well enough alone.”

“I meant it when I said to Andy that this was not solely for her, but also for us. Perhaps we will indeed go at the same time as we have always believed, but what if that’s only us trying to will it into being? I will cheat death anyway that I can to remain by your side. If we can restore Andy’s immortality, then we’ll know when our time comes how we might give ourselves more years together. I cannot be without you, Yusuf, not ever. I’m terrified too.”

“You know of demons, you know them to be real, you’ve always known.”

“Yes, I’ll never forgot. Were I not in your arms in this instant, I would fall to pieces. I have had fear in my life, but nothing like that I saw as a young priest. I still have nightmares, nearly a thousand years later.”

Joe knew the story well, Nicky having told it to him many centuries past. When he had first joined the Priesthood, he’d studied under a seasoned Father called Alessandro. Nicolò had dutifully followed after him, learning and observing. They had take a journey to an Abbey in Northern Italy where it had been declared the Devil himself had possessed a young Novice called Umberto and the entire place was in turmoil. Nicolò was barely 25 and had only just taken his Holy Orders. He was as green as could be, having joined the seminary when was but sixteen. What they found in the isolated and desolate Abbey in the dead of a bleak winter would haunt him until the end of his days. The fact that centuries had passed did not diminish the horror he’d experienced.

Nicolò had never prayed so hard in his life the weeks that they were trapped in the Abbey. It seemed that a monster lay around each corner, haunting its darkened halls. He’d barely slept nor eaten, and wept in fear as Alessandro perform the exorcism to save Umberto’s life. In the end, the boy had died but his soul had gone to God. When the demon, who’d named himself as Beleth, simply moved on to a new host, Alessandro himself, Nicolò had fled. He’d wandered aimless, starving and nearly freezing to death until he’d found his way to a village. News came not a day later that the Abbey and everyone inside, all the Brothers and Alessandro included, had gone up in flames.

In the aftermath, Nicolò had returned to Genoa and devoted himself one hundred fold to the Priesthood and his faith, driven intently by fear. What had occurred at the Abbey was ultimately what brought him to the Crusades and to the Holy Land. He’d thought that his devotion to the quest might save his already tainted soul. It wasn’t until decades later when he’d found peace, love and sanctuary in his Yusuf that he’d felt Beleth’s ever watchful and looming eyes turn from him. The man who’d claimed him as husband had banished the demon from his life and he’d not given his experience much more thought until Andy’s revelations this night.

“Tell me something,” Nicky implored, burying his nose in the heady scent and softness of Joe’s beard. “Tell me something deep and secret that only you and I will know.”

Joe didn’t need to ask why his husband had suddenly made such a request. He remembered Nicky telling him that under possession Alessandro had said terrible things to him, twisting and spewing back memories and conversations that had been said in confession, namely regarding Nicolò’s attraction to men over women. It wasn’t until Alessandro had momentarily broken through and reminded him of his kind benevolence that he’d been able to run and break free. Father Alessandro had sacrificed himself and possibly his soul to save his pupil.

“The first time we said _I love you_ was after the first time we made love. We were wrapped in our blankets under the stars next to our fire. Our horses were tethered to the tree near the water of the oasis. There was no one else around for miles in every direction. It was as if we were the only two people in the universe. Then, wrapped up in each other’s arms we chose our star. We looked up at the night sky and claimed it as ours and declared that our love would last until that star burned itself out.”

“ _Al Suhail_. The most glorious. I did not forget the name of our star. Thank you, Yusuf.” Nicky inched up so their lips could meet in a soft but deep kiss, affirming everything they felt for each other and had done for nearly a millennium.

“Can you sleep, _habibi_?”

“Maybe, but if I cannot I know I will be safe in your arms no matter what.”


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Joe and Nicky had fallen asleep once they’d crossed the border into Romania from Hungary. They’d travelled straight across Europe once they’d amassed the supplies they expected they’d need, not to mention a few other accessories. Joe had followed Nicky and Booker around Prague as they searched for Priests will to bless their weapons and containers of water. It wasn’t often that Nicky slipped into the tenets his past self held so close, but he couldn’t begrudge the two Catholics in their midst if it emboldened them. Joe and Booker had not experienced their shared nightmare of their dear ones burning alive again, but neither had let it slip from the forefronts of their minds.

Nile and Andy had dealt with more practical matters such as securing a vehicle that would make the journey, at the same time as being void of modern tech or automatic features. Andy had told them that the electromagnetic fields within the forest were likely to render current vehicles useless. They made sure to have everything they’d need for mechanical repairs and a replacement battery. Low tech would serve them better on this sojourn than anything modern, but Booker had invested in a few tools for paranormal research with no one questioning his reasons. They collected non-perishable food, camping gear, lanterns and candles, toiletries and a surplus of fresh water. Meanwhile, Quyhn spent the time sequestered with Andy and Booker’s translations giving form to the ritual. She’d always had a gift for the arcane, her mind seeking deeper meaning in all things long before she’d met Andy. The madness wrought from her time imprisoned under water had dissipated, but it had not disappeared entirely nor was it likely to. The feral, unhinged spirit allowed her creativity to run wild and free, and when applied to assembling myth and spellwork, there was the potential for true magick. They had called her witch once, long ago, and she’d denied it. Now she was not so sure they had been wrong.

The van had only 4 seats, leaving Joe and Nicky to volunteer to lay themselves out on a bedroll, crammed in the back among the supplies and weapons. Inevitably, dressed in warm hoodies and coats, blankets over them and a blown up camping pillow to share, they’d fallen asleep in each others’ arms after speaking to in whispers in their own unique language, a mixture of their ancient tongues that even Andy sometimes had a hard time following.

They bypassed the villages surrounding the forest, not inclined to attract any attention from the locals. The forest itself had several roads in that never met each other. Most were used regularly by tourists, but Andy circled around the perimeter until they came to a northeast passage and then brought the van to a halt, jostling the pair in the back awake. Nicky groaned and turned to bury his nose deep into Joe’s chest, burrowing under the blanket, fingers bunching in Joe’s shirt. Joe for his part ran his hands down Nicky’s back and massaged the warm muscles.

“You would think that you never sleep,” Quyhn observed. “Nicolò, Yusuf, you’ve had a full night’s rest and none of us have. You did not even wake when we stopped for gasoline. Only Andromache was able to properly sleep. Now she is driving and I would like to have your bed. Nile would also like to sleep. She called you both selfish assholes not two miles back.”

Nile swatted at Quyhn’s thigh from across the divide between their seats. “I get grouchy when I don’t get my military issued eight hours.”

Nicky yawned and stretched and reluctantly sat up, casting the blanket off himself and Joe, who protested with a groan, trying in vain to pull Nicky back down to him. “We’re awake,” Nicky spoke, his voice rough.

“No we’re not,” Joe grumbled, having sat up but had his forehead resting on Nicky’s shoulder.

“Y’all missed Hungary,” Nile spoke.

“We’ve been to Hungary.”

“When were you in Hungary?” Nile asked.

“Thirteen something?”

“No, my love, we were there in the 19th century,” Nicky provided. “Shortly before we began to dream of Booker. It was winter.”

“Ah, of course. The frostbite.”

Nicky leaned in and kissed the tip of Joe’s nose. “Your nose grew back more beautiful than ever.”

“Ok, gross,” Nile gagged.

“We were caught in a storm, nowhere to shelter, our horses lost, Andromache a hundred miles away!”

“Yeah, it’s all my fault,” Andy groaned.

“I was starving _and_ freezing to death in Russian,” Booker provided, speaking up. He’d navigated them through the rural roads of northern Romania when Andy couldn’t remember the way.

“I was in an iron coffin under the ocean,” Quyhn countered.

“You win,” Nile declared. “How much further?”

“Not far now, _amour_ ,” Booker spoke. “Less than an hour and then I suppose we’ll have to sharpen up.”

“It’s 8 o’clock in the morning. What’s a forest going to do to us in the daylight?”

“Whatever it wants,” Andy spoke solemnly.

“Great, thanks, very reassuring.”

“It’s not meant to be. We’re not going into a forest, we’re going into another world. There’s nothing about that place that’s normal. You’ll see.”

Within the hour they came to the edge of it, stopping in the middle of the road and turning off the ignition. They took the opportunity to stretch their legs, find a bush to make use of given there were no facilities around for miles, and lastly prepare their packs just as if they were going on a mission. Andy’s face was like stone and Booker, who’d remained quiet for most the journey, looked like he was about to come apart at the seams. Even Nile’s attempts to reassured him didn’t help. At one point he grabbed for her and hugged her so tight she could barely draw in a breath. Quyhn stood at the edge of the woods and looked deep into it, as if searching for a pair of eyes in the distance, ready to challenge anyone who dared look back.

Joe was glad Quyhn was with them. There were no horrors anywhere in the world that could phase her, not after the course her life had taken. Her madness was contained, but it still resided within her. It would not be manipulated or exploited, but instead she would unleash it against anything that dare to harm her family. She was looking into the forest and the forest wasn’t ready to look back at her. He took a modicum of comfort in that fact.

Nicky knelt in front of the van at the mouth of the forest and withdrew his sword from its scabbard, setting its point into the earth, his grip on the hilt firm. He bent his head and prayed in hushed Latin, just as he always did before they went into battle. Joe came and stood at his side, his own messages and pleas to Allah in his heart, but they never quite made it to his lips. Instead he placed his hand on the back of husband’s bent head and stroked the length of it and down his neck, over and over. For Nicky’s part there was no benediction more sacred than Joe’s touch and presence. For all his faith in God and how it had remained despite his conflict and doubts regarding the church, Nicolò di Genova’s faith in the love of his life had never waivered. When he was done, he rose, sheathed his sword and instead of looking into the woods and at its many eyes that were upon him, he turned into Joe’s arms for a kiss that quelled his fears regarding what was to come in the days ahead. So long as he was with Joe, he’d fear no evil. Joe for his part squinted up at the new dawn sun as it peaked through the clouds and all he could remember was his terrible dream of Nicky on fire. He sighed and for a minute buried his face in Nicky’s neck and closed his eyes, breathing him in until his lungs were full. He opened his eyes and over Nicky’s shoulder he spotted Booker who in turn was watching Nile quite intently. Nile, whose frame of reference for their situation was the popcorn horror movies she’d watched as a teen. She didn’t yet know or believe in the forces Andy spoke of. Booker did, and he watched her like she was about to be snatched away if he blinked. Joe’s heart ached for him. He’d spent two centuries alone before he’d found solace in love again, and he looked like he wrecked at the prospect of losing it.

Joe hugged Nicky just a little bit tighter.

Once all were sat again in the confines of their vehicle, Andy paused to look at the road behind them before turning to the road ahead, where she knew everything would change and every challenge would be monumental, possibly larger than anything she’d ever experienced in her nearly 7000 years of life. Leading her family into Hell preyed upon her mind every bit as much as the prospect of her own mortality. Nonetheless, she turned on the ignition and put the old van into gear, leading them further down the road and into the forest. To Andy there was a palpable change in the energy around them the moment they crossed the threshold into Hoia Bachiu. Her mind felt dense and scratched at by an almost conscious force. She recognized it instinctually though on no greater or more definable level than that. She had been here thousand of years ago, and she’d almost forgotten, but now, in this instant, she knew down to her bones that the forest had not forgotten her.

For the next hour they followed a bumpy, winding dirt road. The growing ever denser canopy of deciduous and coniferous trees made their passage nearly dark to the point where Andy debated turning on the headlights. While Quyhn and Nile lounged in the place Joe and Nicky had been, the husbands sat in their seats and watched the decaying brown leaves falling like snow from above. The atmosphere was decidedly macabre, but nothing more so than any forest they’d walked innumerable times over the course of their millennium together. Inside the safety of the van, surrounded by their family, they were able to keep thoughts of where they were and where they were headed at bay. However, as mile by mile stretched out behind them, the ominous darkness encroached upon their sense of well being more and more. Nicky cast a worried glance at Joe and saw it reflected back at them. This place was not kind, that much was obvious, but they were growing increasingly aware that it was harbouring a very intent malice. It was a thoroughly corrupted place.

After several more miles the trees grew less dense and they could see light ahead. The van crossed a threshold into a clearing and there before them was a winding assembly of stones stacked in a circular formation to create a spire that stretched toward the tops of the trees. There was one door and no windows. It was no more than a couple dozen paces in diameter, but was three stories tall, perhaps even four. Quyhn and Nile came ahead from their places in the back as Andy slowed to a stop. Nile gawked at the sight of the building.

“That is hella creepy,” she spoke, meeting Booker’s worried glance and he looked back over his shoulder at her. “I’ve never seen rock like that.” Black as midnight the stones from which the turret was fashioned seemed to absorb what little light there was in the thick of the forest. It reflected nothing, not even the scant rays of the sun that broke through from above.

“Neither has anyone else, not in centuries. It came from a quarry not far inland from the shores of the Black Sea. We took every stone we could find,” Andy explained as she turned off the ignition. One by one they left the confines of the van and stood as a group before the structure. Andy picked up a small rock from the ground and gripped it tight in her fist before hurling it at the building. The din that emanated from the impact left them dizzy and disoriented as the sound vibrated through the forest with a keening hum that had Nicky clutching at his heart, Joe covering his ears, Booker holding his head and Nile weak at the knees. Quyhn stood perfectly still and let the vibrations course through her. Andy seemed unaffected. “Every stone creates its own sound, its own pitch and frequency. Imagine them all singing at once, the power and energy that creates. There’s nothing like it on Earth. If you can harness and focus it, you can do so much, such beautiful and terrible things…” Her voice trailed off and she remembered the last time she’d stood before the black tower, millennia before she ever met Quyhn, when she still thought herself a God.

Eventually Andy gave her head a shake and turned to the others. “Nicky, Book, do a perimeter search, make sure there’s nothing to indicate anyone’s been here or are coming back. The clearing is less than a quarter square mile, stick together and circle back around,” Andy ordered. “Joe, Nile, you’re with me, we’ll unload the van of half the supplies – if we get cut off from the van or the tower we can hopefully still access one or the other.”

“Cut off how?” Nile asked but Andy waved her off.

“Quyhn, get the door open,” Andy asked, her tone softening.

Before they parted, Joe took Nicky by his wrist and reeled him in for a gladly given kiss, “Be careful, _habibi_ ,” Joe spoke softly, meeting the eyes of his love that in the ombre of the sun through the trees had lost their brilliant blue and green, leaving them gray. “I dislike the feel of these woods. It’s like something is watching.”

“You’re not alone,” Nicky affirmed, turning his hand over to encircle Joe’s own wrist. “I do not like this place. It knows we’re here.”

“It? You think there is a consciousness here?”

Nicky nodded, “Many. Do you not feel eyes upon you? The hairs at your neck prickling?”

Joe sighed and nodded. He had been desperately trying to ignore the sensations. He was used to being a predator and not the prey, but in this place, he knew they were each without the upper hand. Nicky kissed him again. “Your heart is brave, my love, never let yourself falter in that knowledge. Your heart, your mind, your body, they are _strong_.”

Joe pressed his lips together, accepting his husband’s words. “Keep your senses open, eyes and ears. Listen to your instincts and don’t hesitate when they tell you to do something.”

“The same goes for you. Ok, go help Andy, she’s on edge. You don’t want to keep her waiting much longer.” Joe hesitated and looked over Nicky’s shoulder to where Booker was waiting, staring past them at Nile as she and Andy unloaded supplies from the van. The look on his face was every bit as concerned as Joe’s. He kissed Nicky once more, nuzzling at his jaw with his nose before finally letting him go. He turned away from Nicky as he went off to join Booker in their duties. Shaking the tension from his body, Joe walked up to Nile and began to help her unload. They’d brought just about everything a group would need to survive in the wilderness for a couple of weeks without modern amenities. They had come well prepared. They had food and water a plenty, and enough camping gear to outfit the small army that they were. Plus, ammunition and weapons that were probably completely ineffectual against the sorts of entities Andy at hinted at back in Prague.

Joe felt entirely out of his element and out of sorts. He felt vulnerable and worse yet, he felt Nicky was vulnerable and Joe wouldn’t be up to the task of protecting him as he’d like to. In battle they were a perfect symbiotic pair, but here they were completely out of their depth. He hated the feelings of weakness that currently occupied his mind.

“You doing ok?” Nile asked at his side, breaking him out of his spiralling thoughts.

“Uh, no, I don’t think so. I am trying not to have regrets about Nicky and I bringing this to the family, us ending up here.”

“Won’t it be worth it if we can get Andy’s immortality back?”

“It will, but will there be a cost? Nicky and I were born in a time long after magick was part of daily life. It became the work of the devil, at least according to Nicolo’s faith. There were still pagans of course, the last of the Celts and the Norsemen, but the truly ancient ways were from Andy’s time. It’s foreign territory and it frightens me.”

“Quyhn seems to have a pretty good handle on it.”

“That’s because she _was_ a witch. To her people as much as the English bastards who drowned her. She was cast out because she could connect with nature and the world on a deeper level. It gave her power and it frightened everyone else. When she and Andy found each other, it wasn’t really important anymore, they became warriors.”

“That is wild.”

“To me it’s only a story she told us. I don’t know what she’s going to do now with the Sumerian ritual. I guess we’ll find out. I feel like we’re walking into that movie… _Poltergeist_. We liked that movie when it came out.

“A classic.”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to live it.”

“Book’s the same as you, thinking we’re on the Hellmouth like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Joe chuckled. “Nicky liked that show, I remember. Booker’s worried. I’ve noticed that about him more and more since we’re all together again.”

“He’s afraid you’re going to kick him out if he messes up even a little. He told me that, I’m not just guessing.”

Joe frowned. “We forgave him.”

“He knows, but it doesn’t stop him from being scared it’ll happen.”

“It won’t.”

“I know, you know, even he knows, but it makes him nervous. He and I are doing pretty good, and he’s trying. He doesn’t want to be here though. He had nightmares last night again.”

Joe felt his stomach clench. He wasn’t one to believe in prophecy, but he did believe in destiny and it was becoming increasingly clear that something powerful was at play. “What did he dream of?”

“He wouldn’t tell me. He said it was about you and Nicky.”

“Guys! Get the lead out,” came Andy’s boisterous call as the heavy iron swung open under the careful picking of its multiple locks by the eternally clever Quyhn. There wasn’t a door on earth that could keep her out. Loading their arms and backs with their gear, Nile and Joe each took one handle in each hand of two heavy chests and hefted them up off the ground and made their way inside. Andy passed them and shut up the van before following after them, the four of them crossed the iron threshold and entered the blackness of the tower.

Andy immediately lit a light rod she’d pulled from inside her pack. There were no windows of course, and the black stone was the same inside as out. Planks of wood had been put down over the floor and Andy frowned. “Those are new,” she spoke, looking around the entrance hall. “Someone’s been here. Been living here.” Virtually no light penetrated the front hall from anywhere but the door. Andy waved the light around and saw layers of dust and cobwebs covering the dark hardwood floors the spiral staircase that wound around one that led to the upper levels.

Quyhn looked upwards from its base with curiosity, eager to explore. Joe and Nile deposited their bags and the chests inside and followed as Andy went to the right, illuminating the space further. Someone had been living in the tower, but clearly not for a very long time. A large cistern had been installed, with pipes leading to what might’ve been a water-closet, and another set towards what could be a kitchen area. There was a space with a copper bathtub and a drain that went below the floor boards.

“Who would try to live here?” Nile asked. “When do you suppose this happened?”

“Sometime in the late 19th century,” Joe suggested, “If I were to take a guess.” Joe looked around the room, trying to absorb all its details at once. There were many touches of a home – plates and cups in a small cupboard, cutlery and pots, a water pump at the center of room across from the cistern, a table and chairs, candlesticks with candles still in them, and against the spiralling staircase, a stove with a stack that somehow wove its way ever upwards. There were even abandoned logs to heat the hearth. Someone had tried in earnest to make this forgotten, cursed place a home.

“Shall we go upstairs?” Quyhn prompted, “I want to see.”

“I’ll go first,” Andy insisted, but Quyhn gave her a stern look and strode ahead of them up into the darkness, verily sprinting up the stairs. Andy followed, and Joe and Nile were hot on their heels after grabbing light rods of their own.

They found Andy and Quyhn surveying what appeared to be a childrens’ room. There was a small mattress covered in blankets on the floor next to a small cradle, both of which were mercifully empty. There were abandoned carved wooden toys, clothing folded neatly in an open chest, and books on a small shelf. Nile slid a small hardcover volume from the group and passed it to Joe, who opened it and began to read.

“Nicky’s Romanian is much better than mine, but it’s a book of fables as far as I can tell, published in 1888,” Joe spoke, closing the book and passing it back to Nile. “Did they just leave everything?”

“Looks like,” Nile agreed.

“They shouldn’t have been here in the first place,” Andy sighed with a heavy regret in her voice. “I should’ve had this place torn down when I left it.”

“You’re not to blame,” Joe assured her, “This was only a hundred years ago. It is a well made structure. It’s full protection against the elements and against attack – someone came upon it accidentally and claimed thousands of years after you. Maybe they left and went back to wherever they came from?”

“I doubt it.” Andy said nothing more on the subject and followed after Quyhn ever higher towards the top of the tower. There were more rooms and more evidence that a family had tried to settle here. What was not apparent however was where they had disappeared to and why they’d left all their possessions. Joe was too disturbed to ask.

“You know, it’s actually quite a beautiful forest,” Nicky mused as he and Booker patrolled around the edge of the clearing. The sun had risen and morning was fully upon them with light filtering down through the autumn leave of the deciduous trees. “Winter will be here soon, maybe another week or two.”

Booker for his part was focused on the task at hand. His lack of sleep and general unease kept him on edge. “Andy called it pure evil. Stay focused, Nicky. Let’s get this done and get back to the others.”

“We’ve not seen such a thing, though it may yet present itself. All I’m saying is that the trees are interesting. Still, it is eerily quiet wouldn’t you say? Booker?” When he didn’t answer Nicky looked to his left where his friend had been and then turned around on the spot. There was no sign of him. He’s been less that two feet away just moments ago. Nicky took a deep breath to steady himself before circling back to see if he could find Booker. It was the that he noticed something else wasn’t quite right. It was completely silent. Furthermore, the warm light of the sun had faded and everything that was once vibrant was instead dull and tinged with cold colours, as if coated with a layer of ash. In the distance he heard a soft wailing, almost like that of a crying baby, but is was distinctly inhuman. The world around him became a murky green gray and it felt ominous and threatening. Nicky had the intense sense that someone, perhaps many someones were watching them

He felt their eyes on him before he saw them. One by one they blinked into existence, their forms coalescing out of the darkness, their eyes dim, menacing and hungry. It occurred to Nicky then that perhaps Booker wasn’t the one who was lost but rather that he was.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Booker stood alone in the clearing surrounding the black tower under the new day’s sun, feeling his guts twist, his heartbeat thundering in his chest, and the bile rising up in his throat. He and Nicky had been walking shoulder to shoulder, watching each others’ six, and doing as Andy had ordered them to do. He’d caught a flash of something in his peripheral vision and turned his scope to his left to find nothing. When he turned back, Nicky had vanished. For several minutes Booker could not bring himself to speak or call for help. Never in all his years had he ever truly been paralyzed by fear, but in this instance it was as if he’d been frozen in time.

A powerful gust of wind came through a corridor of trees, howling as it washed over him and it broke him from his inertia. “Nicky!” he bellowed, his voice consumed by the wind so as not to be heard beyond the hollow of his own mouth. “Damn it, Nicky where are you! Merde, merde, merde.”

Seeing no sign of his friend, Booker turned and ran back to the others. To Joe. To tell him his husband had disappeared in broad daylight in the middle of a cursed field! As it happened, Joe, Andy and Nile had emerged from within for one last trip from unloading the van, where Quyhn was he didn’t know, but Booker’s only thought was to get to Joe. The crisis was evident the moment Joe noticed Booker running towards them. He left the others and went to meet Booker half way.

“Where is he?” Joe cried, a blind panic dropping on to him like an anvil.

“I don’t know!” Booker replied. “He was there one second, gone the next. We were talking and I was distracted and when I turned back he was gone. Joe, he was _right_ next to me, less that two feet away. I swear I don’t know what happened.”

“Nicky! Nicolò!” Joe shouted as he pushed passed Booker, ready to storm the forest, only to be held back by Andy. He stopped and looked at her, confusion marring his face.

“I’m sorry Joe,” Andy began.

“Sorry? Sorry for what… Andy?”

“The forest, it takes people. Shit, we just fucking got here.”

“Takes people? Andy, where is he? Where’s my husband!”

“The other side. It’s not a place we can get to at will, or come back from until it coughs us up. He is lost Joe, I don’t now how to get him back.”

Joe jerked his arm from Andy’s grasp violently. “I’m not leaving this place until either I find a way in, or it gives him back. And after that happens…” Joe pointed his finger straight to Andy’s face, his eyes fire and rage. She didn’t back down and neither did he. At a loss for words he stormed off. With a nod in his direction from Andy, Booker turned on his heels and followed after Joe.

“Tell me exactly where he was, Book!” Joe shouted, “The exact spot!”

“Follow me,” Booker spoke catching up with his friend. “I swear there was nothing to indicate there was any danger. I swear it, Joe. After everything that happened with Merrick, I would never…”

“Not now, please. Listen, I know, ok? I know, but until I have Nicky back I can’t rest.”

“It was here,” Booker declared, pocketing away their conversation to be had at another time. Booker accepted Joe’s words that he believed he’d never do anything to harm them, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to feel like he believed him.

“Right here?”

“This exact spot. We were talking, like normal. Nicky said he liked the trees, I told him we needed to focus and hurry so we could get back to the tower and then when he didn’t respond I turned my head and he wasn’t there anymore. There was nothing but the wind. Nothing. Last night…” Booker made a sudden, sharp, wounded sound and tears well up in his eyes.

“Last night?” Joe urged, cracking his knuckles, his entire body electric with anxiety.

“Last night I dreamt of you two. You were… you were both covered in blood and you were crying because you thought he was dead. You were in a place with no light.”

“He’s not dead. He can’t die.”

“I know, Joe. He’s not. He’s not.” Booker hoped he’d said the words with enough conviction to convince his brother, but the wildness and fear in Joe’s eyes told him otherwise. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Joe shook his head and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. “After you noticed Nicky was gone, was there anything different about the forest? The light, the wind? Anything?”

“It was silent, deadly silent, not a single sound but my own breath. Then I ran for you.”

Joe let out a shuddering breath and bit back a sob. “Nicolò,” he gasped as he broke.

“Fuck, Nicky!” Booked cried, suddenly seeing the man himself at the other side of the clearing. Joe’s head snapped up and sure enough, less than a hundred feet away was his husband. Several realizations and emotions coursed through Joe in a matter of seconds. The first was relief. His eyes had met Nicky’s again, just as they first had a thousand years ago across a battlefield. Just as they had the last time they’d made love. The rest came upon him all at once – fear, joy, anger, astonishment. Nicky was alive, but he was not in the same state as he’d been minutes before. To begin with, his clothing was in tatters and there wasn’t much left of it clinging to his body, though he still had his boots on. His pack and weapons were gone, save for his long-sword, the hilt of which was clasped in his hand, though the point was towards the earth. Last was the blood and the wounds from which it bubbled forth from and flowed in rivers down his body. Nicky looked as if he’d been torn apart by a pack of wild animals. There was more red and viscera on him than his own skin.

Joe cried out and with Booker hot on his heels, he sprinted across the divide between them. With the last vestiges of his strength, Nicky staggered towards them and as soon as Joe reached him, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed into his husbands’ arms, dead to the world. The sword dropped from his fingers and Booked grabbed for it as Joe hefted his husband’s limp body into his arms, all the while screaming his beloved’s name between his own feral cries of anguish. There was too much blood for Joe to get much purchase on Nicky’s body and he nearly dropped him more than once and he made his way towards the tower. Booked followed, finding himself in tears as he watched Joe become increasingly hysterical.

It was Nile who met them first, rushing towards Joe’s screams for help, her eyes going wide in shock at the sight of Nicky’s state.

“Get water, Nile,” Booker shouted ahead. “Get the bath filled.” Nile nodded and dashed through the door to get Andy and Quyhn to help. While Joe had been searching for his husband, the other three had set to work making a base camp on the first floor. They’d set up enough lights that the details of the room were discernable and lit the way for Joe to carry Nicky through towards the copper basin that served as the bath.

“Oh god, Nicky,” Andy spoke, feeling her body begin to tremble. While relieved he’d been returned to them, she too was horrified by the state of him. Behind them, Quyhn closed the front door and locked it, sealing them off from the world outside the walls of the tower and the influence of the forest.

“Joe, you gotta calm down,” Nile insisted as she grasped Joe’s wrists after he’d laid Nicky on the floor. “You can’t help him like this, just take a few breaths with me.”

“I… I… he…” Joe cried.

“Breathe, c’mon, just breathe. Do this and we can help Nicky,” she repeated, “Book help get Nicky undressed. Start on his boots.” With a nod and the order from Nile, he let Nicky’s sword clatter loudly to the floor and he knelt at Nicky’s feet and began to labouriously unknot the blood soaked laces. There wasn’t much in the way of clothing on Nicky left, but Joe dutifully went to the task of divesting him of it.

He gagged and nearly wretched as skin peeled away with the wet fabric, leaving his poor beloved raw and seeping lymphatic fluid from just beneath the surface. Tears streamed down Joe’s face and Nicky mercifully made no sign of feeling any of it. Nile had busied herself with filling the bath with water from pump that Andy worked, using a copper bucket left nearby. The well water was cold, but at least it was fresh, unlike that of a cistern. Once Nicky was naked, Joe, with Booked lifting his feet, submersed him the water. He had no reaction and Nile felt for a pulse.

“He’s alive,” she spoke upon finding the thrum of his heartbeat, catching Joe’s eye and nodding her affirmation. “He’s alive.” Andy’s presence loomed like a shadow as she offered Joe a bar of soap and a wash cloth. He looked up at her, his face unreadable, as he accepted it. Quyhn tugged her away.

“Andromache, we must start a fire in the stove,” Quyhn bade. “Yusuf will care for him, but our Nicolò will be cold. There is nothing we can do otherwise, and this was not your fault. The forest has waited a long time for you to return, it has not forgotten you. This was a test.”

“A test?” she asked. “Then why take Nicky?”

“It merely wanted to test its strength against us. Nicolò presented an opportunity first. Come.”

With shaking hands, Joe bathed his husband, washing away the blood and gore from him, waiting for signs his body was healing. Nile helped, as did Booker, but Joe held Nicky in his arms and silently wept as he worked. This was beyond anything Joe had previously experienced, even in times of war. Never had his dearest heart had been so brutalized. Even when the water had gone crimson and pink and Nicky was clean, Joe could not calm. Nile continued to work, draining the bath and pouring more water over Nicky’s vulnerable body to rinse him.

“Hey Joe,” she spoke breaking through his fixation on Nicky’s inert form. “Look, the wounds are heeling, there’s no more blood. He’s going to be ok…”

They all nearly jumped out of their skins when Nicky suddenly gasped and lurched back to consciousness. He flailed his limbs out and clapped Joe against his face while Booker caught a foot to his chest.

“Nicolò!” Joe cried. “Nicolò, _calmo, amore mio! Calmo. Sono qui. Sei al sicuro_. Calm, my love, I’m here. You’re safe.”

Nicky looked into his husband’s eyes and though he shivered violently, naked in the metal tub, he felt the security for Joe’s grip on his body. “Yusuf?” he whispered, searching those warm eyes of Joe’s for reassurance.”

“I have you, Nicolò. I have you.” Nicky slumped in Joe’s arms and closed his eyes.

“Here,” Booker spoke, offering a towel to them. “Joe, I’ll get him a change of clothes. I’ll clean his boots too. You’re covered in blood. Rinse yourself off and I’ll get clothes for you also.”

Nicky let Joe continue to minister to him. He rose on shaking legs, ignoring his naked state and let Joe dry him from head to toe and wring the cold water from his hair. He accepted the clothes Booker offered him and let Joe dress him too before being guided to where Nile had rolled out a sleeping bag. He stumbled, his legs weak, but Joe kept him upright until he eased under the covers, boneless and exhausted. Joe followed shortly after he’d cleaned himself and changed out of the garments soaked in Nicky’s blood. Soon Joe’s weight settled behind Nicky and he found himself encompassed by his limbs. They were both shaking and shivering and Joe’s crying was muffled at the back of Nicky’s neck.

“Just rest, ok, Nicky?” Andy spoke, her voice soft and comforting for once. “I’m sorry.”

Nicky didn’t have the voice to respond, and nor could he have as Joe’s embrace was nearly crushing him. He hadn’t any fight left in him after what he had experienced and mere seconds later he was already slipping into slumber.

Once Joe had drifted off as well, the others finally allowed themselves a modicum and calm. Nile busied herself by cleaning up the bloody clothing while Booker cleaned Nicky’s boots. The stove grew hot with its burning logs within and Quyhn watched the sleeping pair with interest. Yusuf’s knuckles were still white where he gripped Nicolò’s wrist. Eventually Andy dropped down against one of the walls and tipped her head back, her eyes closing. It had been the day from Hell and it had barely started.

Nile meanwhile had decided she needed a moment to herself. She knew in the back of her mind that you were never supposed to go off on your own in the middle of a horror film scenario, but she was immortal and Quyhn had locked the door. Besides, Booker would notice she was gone in a minute and come after her. After witnessing how Nicky had been brutalized and Joe’s blind panic from the moment he’d disappeared until he’d put him in bed, she was on edge and needed space to breathe. Since she wasn’t about to go outside, she ascended the staircase past the children’s room to the next level. It was another bedroom. It was as sparse and basic as the rest of the tower. Again she questioned why anyone would try to turn this bizarre and malevolent place into a home, but she supposed they mustn’t have believed the lore about the forest, if they even knew about it in the first place.

She’d had the sense to carry a light with her, but the walls seemed to absorb what it gave off. Having second thoughts about wandering off, she was about to turn herself around when she looked at the mirror that had been hung on the wall.

There was no one there. Her reflection wasn't in the mirror. Nile brought her trembling hands up to touch her face. She pressed her fingertips to her flesh, making sure _she_ was real. Her breath slammed out of her chest and tears brimmed in her eyes. She tried to call out to Booker, but her voice wouldn't come forth. It took all her mental fortitude to extend her hand and touch the mirror. She glided her fingers across the glass and still she saw nothing. She was rooted to the spot, trapped in her own fear, terrified she was in some other world and didn't know it, the world Nicky had been pulled into. When the mirror suddenly splintered under her touch and sliced her flesh she hissed and reflexively pulled her hand away. That's when she saw it, the other face. It was barely there, little more than a shadow. It coalesced at a nearly imperceptible pace and Nile couldn't look away no matter how hard she willed herself to close her eyes or run from the room. As features began to form and the eyes registered a sentience, Nile knew she was in peril. The thing's gaze fixated itself upon her. The face shifted again and in a ghastly shade of grey, Nile saw a distorted, malformed version of her own face staring back at her. The thing twitched and the mirror cracked in a spider web before shattering completely.

The glass shards fell to the floor with a mighty din. As the last of it fell away Nile continued to stare straight ahead, now at the stone wall. She didn't even register the sound of Booker’s feet as he rushed through the tower in search of her.

"Nile!" he cried as he came to her, "Nile!" He had trouble making her out in the dark room. Her flashlight had fallen to the floor. “Nile!" He grasped her shoulders and turned her away from where the mirror had been to face him. He cupped her face and stared into her vacant eyes. "Your skin's as cold as ice! Nile!" He gave her a shake and she started. She blinked rapidly and came back to herself.

"Booker!" she gasped a moment before she threw herself against him and buried her face against his chest. She locked her arms around his waist and held on to him with all her might.

"What happened?"

"I... I wasn't there! I couldn't see myself in the mirror!" She trembled violently, so much so that Booker palpably felt her fear.

"Tell me what happened," he bade.

Nile let out a shaky breath and rubbed her hand over her face. "I couldn't see my reflection in the mirror. I wasn't there."

"It must've been a trick of the light or something."

"My reflection wasn't in the mirror. My eyes weren't playing tricks on me. There... there was another face, not mine.”

“You shouldn’t have walked away on your own, not after what just happened with Nicky. What if… what if something had taken you? I’d be a wreck like Joe. Nile promise me you won’t do that again?” She nodded and threw her arms around his neck.

“I’m sorry. It was stupid. I thought we were safe in here.”

He sighed wearily and crushed her to him. “We won’t be safe until we’re out of the forest. I hate it. I hate everything about this.”

“I know, but it’s for Andy. We have to go through with it.”

“But at what cost? I can’t lose you. I know it’s barely been a couple of weeks for us, nothing like Joe and Nicky’s marriage, but, _merde_ , I love you, Nile. I love you and I’d be lost without you.”

“Oh, Book…” She buried her face at his neck and he held her tight, nearly lifting her off the ground. “It’s the same for me, ok? You’re my best friend, my lover, my guy, I love you too.”

“ _Merci, ma chère, merci pour m’aimer. Ma reine.”_ She cupped the back of his head and kissed his cheek, and just basked in his warmth. At length, he let her go, reaching down to grasp at the flashlight. He kicked a few shards of the mirror towards the wall. “C’mon, we should get back to the others, it’s not safe to be separated.”

When they reappeared on the ground floor Andy opened her eyes and looked at them dispassionately. It was obvious she was trying to hide herself with a tough exterior, but the way in which she avoided looking at Nicky told them what had happened to him cut her to the quick. “Where did you do run off to?” she asked. “The party’s right here.”

“You didn’t hear the mirror smashing?” Nile asked incredulously.

Andy’s brow furrowed. “No. It’s been silent as the grave. I thought you two were looking for a place to make out or something.”

“Something shattered a mirror in the second bedroom upstairs. I saw a face in it that wasn’t mine and then it shattered.”

“Interesting,” Quyhn observed. “No, we heard nothing. The entities have entered the tower then. They are among us. We should be more cautious.”

“That’s what you’re saying? Those are the words coming out of your mouth?” Nile spoke in disbelief. “After what happened to Nicky, how can you be so casual?”

“It is not like that, little sister. If I have learned anything from my time beneath the sea, it is patience. We can do nothing but wait until tonight to restore Andromache’s immortality, until then the many consciousnesses that exist within the forest and within this tower will try to play with us, to taunt or torment us and we must not allow them to. If you are scared, remain with Booker. The two of you are bonded and your connection with give you strength, just as Yusuf and Nicolò do for each other.”

“I’m living in a damn horror movie!”

Quyhn gestured for them to come closer and after a moment, Nile sighed and gave in, taking Booker’s hand and leading him back to the circle where Joe and Nicky lay sleeping on the floor, Andy against the wall and Quyhn seated next to her but not with her. Booked laid out their bed roll to give them a little cushioning on the floor and they sat themselves cross legged side by side, their knees touching.

Quyhn looked to Andy and smiled kindly before turning to the youngest of their family. “There is a moment, a place, between life and death where there is a void. After so many deaths, and so many returns to life, I became keenly aware of this place and all it held for the few seconds I was there. As it happened again and again, I was to learn to hold on to it just a little more each time – each time I died and each time I came back and for a while, I could escape my torment and dwell there, be at peace. Make no mistake, it was not a peaceful place by any capacity of your imagination, but I was myself there, not trapped in my iron prison, not underneath the ocean. I was free. Once you have come awake within this place you learn that the world is so much more vast than what you knew it to be before. I went beyond fear, beyond all sanity and reason and there I learned its secrets. That dark and terrible place has many paths leading to it. This forest is one of them.”

Quyhn saw that Joe had awakened and was listening to her, they all were save for Nicky, who slept on in his husband’s protective embrace. “One of the reasons the other side claimed Nicolò was not because he was weak or vulnerable, not at all. They preyed upon Nicolò because he is the strongest. His body heals from any assault, but so does his mind, his resolve, and his faith. They are scared of him, scared of what he would become if they preyed upon Yusuf instead. They took him because if they could defeat him, then could defeat us all. They did not, and will now wage war on each of us until we fall one by one. Or not, if we take care of each other, and we will. We are family.”

The group were all violently startled not a second later when Nicky cried out and jolted awake, nearly sending Joe reeling back and off him, but he held him firm. “Nicolò! Nicolò!” Joe cried, immediately taking Nicky’s face between his hands and turning his head so their eyes could meet.

“Yu… Yusuf?” Nicky gasped, blinking rapidly to clear his mind and bring himself from his dreams back to the waking world.

“Yes, my love. You’re safe, I have you.”

Nicky relaxed and rubbed his hand down the length of his face, trying in vain to slow the jack-rabbitting of his heartbeat as he breathed heavily. He felt his husband’s palm rub soothingly against his chest and his kisses on his face.

“Are you alright, _habibi_?” Joe asked, his voice thick with worry. “You have no wounds that have not long healed. You’ve been asleep for nearly an hour.

Nicky nodded. “ _Grazie, grazie._ ” Nicky looked at his surroundings, taking in the strangely homely atmosphere inside what he assumed was the ominous black tower. It was not what he’d expected, but to be fair he’d had no particular expectations to begin with. He looked to Andy, her face a shadow, to Quyhn, her eyes clear and studious, and then to Nile and Booker, close and inclined to each other, but not in an embrace as he and Joe were. They sat up and Nicky wrapped his arms around Joe, pressing his lips to his cheek and tightening his hold. “Thank you, my heart, for finding me. For rescuing me.”

“My love, I would not have rested until I had you back in my arms. It was the longest five minutes of my entire life!”

Nicky drew back and looked into Joe’s sorrowful eyes. He looked around the room again and realized none of them understood. “Five minutes? No, no, it was not minutes. I have been gone for five days.”


End file.
